Collins, £9.99, ISBN 978-0-00-854524-6
Self-Improvement, 2022

I bought 365 Days of Happy from a book vending machine at a hospital, not knowing what to expect but just wanting to read while passing the time waiting for my number to be called.

Yes, I know, reading instead of checking my phone — that’s how people can tell that I am old. 

Anyway, I don’t know what to expect, as I just picked the book because the cover looks cute. It turns out that this book is for kids, as “grown-ups” are mentioned in it here and there.

Here’s what it is: a day-by-day series of tips, the “365” in the title actually refers to the fact that there are 365 “advice” present. Yes, the title is as misleading as it is grammatically off. 

The “advice”… oh boy. It’s the kind of thing I can find in greeting cards. Gems such as “A problem is a chance for you to do your best” — a quote by Duke Ellington, so the author didn’t even come up with it — and “If you can dream it, you can do it” — a quote attributed to Walt Disney, so again, Becky Goddard-Hill didn’t come up with anything of her own here — are as useful as me looking into the mirror every day and manifesting super hard ten trillion dollars to show up in front of me. 

This book, therefore, is as likely to produce epiphanies as I am to put on a superhero costume and fly if I “can dream it”. 

Will it help kids with their happiness? I doubt it, as I doubt kids are that gullible to believe that things will happen if one wills it to happen. There are some good points here related to being happy with your body and such, but the “advice” on these things are just shallow quotes and greeting card slogans.

In other words, this is not a self-help book. It’s an admittedly pretty and colorful gift that is not meant to be taken that seriously. 

So, treat it as what it is — vapid fluff — and it’s a pretty thing that can be browsed through now and then when one has nothing better to do. Expect more from it, and one is not going to be happy.